Valve make no profit on the consoles themselves right? And if the steam deck profit model of making their money off of games applies to games bought on any handheld, then why not let the other companies have the higher end market and all the research and development costs that making a new console needs. Especially because each new generation would need a refresh to stay on top.(more r and d costs) So why wouldnt valve just keep making their current steam deck that runs stuff well enough for them to keep selling games.
I’m sensing a lack of consideration that you might know less about manufacturing a mass marketed PC handheld than they do… I’m only going to humor you this far.
You make it sound like an additional 100g on a mass marketed +600g device is not that much of an impact, but I’m pretty sure the effects of weight was one of the metrics in the many iterations that they tested.
Two ways: